Good morning! The official high of 98 yesterday at Grand Rapids was the highest official reading at GRR since 2012 and it was the 2nd highest temperature for any July 14th at Grand Rapids. Over at Lansing the official high of 97 was the highest temperature there since 2022. The overnight low and current temperature here in my yard is 72 with a DP of 67 here. Today and Thursday look to stay on the hot side with highs in the mid 90’s a period of smoke looks to flow in later today and continue tomorrow. Lows tonight and Thursday look to be in the upper 60’s to low 70’s Friday and Saturday look to have around a 50% chance of some much needed rain with highs around 90 and lows in the mid 60’s to near 70. Sunday looks nice with highs in the upper 80’s. Showers return on Monday and it will turn noticeable cooler on Tuesday when highs will only be in the 70’s lows will be in the mid 60’s Looking ahead we look to have a major cool down for the rest of July. https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/610day/ https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/814day/index.php Detailed Forecast Today Patchy smoke after 3pm. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 96. Heat index values as high as 104. Northwest wind 3 to 8 mph. Tonight Widespread smoke, mainly after 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 68. North northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming calm after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 18 mph. Thursday Widespread smoke. Sunny and hot, with a high near 94. Light and variable wind. Thursday Night Widespread smoke before 9pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 70. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming light and variable in the evening. Friday A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 2pm. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 92. Light and variable wind becoming south southwest 5 to 7 mph in the morning. Friday Night A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 71. Saturday A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 89. Saturday Night A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 65. Sunday Sunny, with a high near 88. Sunday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 66. Monday A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 87. Monday Night Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 65. Tuesday Mostly sunny, with a high near 79. The official H/L yesterday at Grand Rapids was 98/69 there were 19 CDD’s there was no rainfall, the highest wind gust was 24 MPH out of the SW For today the average H/L is 83/63 the record high of 95 was in 1995. 2006 and 2013 the coolest high of 58 was in 1987 the record low of 47 was in 1987 the warmest low of 75 was in 1977. The most rainfall of 2.17” was in 1995. Last year the H/L was 89/58. Some weather history for July 15th, 1987, Unseasonably cool weather spread into the south central and eastern U.S. Fifteen cities reported record low temperatures for the date, including Houghton Lake, MI, with a reading of 37 degrees. The high temperature for the date of 58 degrees at Flint, MI, was their coolest of record for July. Thunderstorms spawned several tornadoes in Illinois and Indiana, injuring a cow near Donovan, IL. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) 1988, Twenty-six cities east of the Mississippi River reported record high temperatures for the date. Charleston, WV, established an all-time record high with a reading of 103 degrees, and Chicago, IL, reported a record fifth day of 100 degree heat for the year. A severe thunderstorm moving across Omaha, NE, and the Council Bluffs area of west central Iowa spawned three tornadoes which injured 88 persons, and also produced high winds which injured 18 others. Winds at the Omaha Eppley Airport reached 92 mph. Damage from the storm was estimated at 43 million dollars. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)

While there were several reports of 100 in Michigan, Detroit with a high of 94 was not one of them.

Check out this place in Ostra Vemmerlov. It used to be a distillery and a bakery, but now it's a house.

That’s really interesting, I did not know that. Looks like some parts of high elevation South America also share that. I do want to check out the area again in the early season in like November, perhaps when there’s a little snow but not too much to make it inaccessible.

Looks great up there near and below the lake. I hopped into the rabbit hole a bit regarding the climate down there... it looks like a strange hybrid between sagebrush and alpine forest. I think it's called a CsB climate in the Koppen books; cold-summer mediterranean. Very very rare climate type. Cold, snowy winters, but not quite cool or wet enough during the warm season to warrant a full on subarctic/humid continental climate zone, despite a decent spring/summer thunderstorm season equating to 1-2" of precip a month. Big snows and long winters warrant the alpine forest, but by June the snowpack is mostly gone and temps regularly shoot into the 60s/70s, with infrequent, often dry storms. Soil dries out promptly and the sagebrush season takes hold. Good luck finding any non-coniferous deciduous trees up there, even near water sources. Anyways, anyways, I hope neither of us run into smoke!